Insidious: Mad Love
by Le Confidant
Summary: Exactly one year ago Alphonse had melded with Envy in a sinful communion of souls and now personalities and memories didn't have a master, they were all one and the same to them. There was no more "I", but "Us". Creator and Destroyer together for common Preservation. —Ed x Win, Al x Win— Envy!Al, Evil!Al
1. READ ME!

**THIS IS AN IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE. **

**PLEASE READ IT BEFORE READING THE STORY!**

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Its been about six months since I finished part one of this story. It wasn't my initial intention to split the story in two but I had to move very far away. C'est la vie. Anyway, I didn't want to leave the story in long hiatus so I gave it a proper ending with a hint of continuation.

I had made my mind to work on this story after finishing Convergence so I was going to forego my initial commitment to start in Fall with part two, but the story kept nagging at me, and since I was inspired, I've decided to strike while the iron is hot.

Part one ended on a twisted note but it sets the mood for the next installment. The Prologue is set one year after the events of part one, and it will start with a bang. _Insidious: Mad Love_ will finally move on to the core of the plot but it will be a rough ride.

This story is emotionally scarring to say the least and the topics that I will touch here can have a trigger effect on the reader. So if you're sensitive to violence in all it's forms then I suggest to you to forgo this story and find something else to read. Do it for your sake as what you read can't be undone later.

I will keep Author's Notes to minimum, only relaying important info, such as references and special thanks.

**This author's note will contain the warnings on what you will see in this story.**

Here's the laundry list:

1. Crude language

2. Graphic violence

3. Gore

4. Rape/Non-Con

5. Substance abuse

6. Mind-fuckery

7. Torture

8. Mature sexual situations

**I don't kid around with warnings, WYSIWYG.**

As with part one, I will only post to fanfictiondotnet the watered down version of the story. The original will be at archiveofourown. A chapter warning will let you know when I post the hardcore chapter to AO3.

I will still use chapter warnings to let you, dear reader, know what to expect from that chapter.

That is all. I will leave you with a quote from my last review on part one.

_"I think this is the darkest, and most twisted morbid story I have ever read. And I read Stephen King books. It was beautifully disturbing, and words simply cannot express how I am feeling after reading this."_

That quote pretty much summarizes what I wanted to portray in Insidious, and yes, it is the darkest, most twisted and morbid story I will ever write under this pen name.

**For those of you who are fascinated with horror, enjoy!**


	2. Prologue

A/N: I'm launching the story unbeta'd. Please forgive any typos and grammatical errors that you may encounter along the way.

The song I chose as my inspiration for writing this second part of the story is _Crash Push (Más y Más)_ by Robi Draco Rosa. Great dark song from an excellent singer/songwriter. Look it up in YT, won't be disappointed. Actually ignore the visuals on YT videos as the posters don't know squat about the true meaning of the song. _Crash Push_ is about falling into vice (Sin).

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**Chapter warning:** This chapter contains gore, sexual implications and crude language.

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**Prologue**

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Alphonse thought that today had been a good day. The afternoon had been productive, with him running errands, then treating himself to one of those tasty cupcakes from the new shop at the corner of Manchester and Burke. Now that the evening fast approached, he felt quite exhilarated, because after all, today was a very special day.

Alphonse was whistling a happy tune as he walked up the stairs of the subway station. He continued whistling while he strode down the bustling street, greeting familiar faces as he made his way to his cozy home. He kept whistling as he opened the front door. The whistling accompanied him as he walked up the stairs and into the bedroom. He even continued whistling the happy tune while he took his clothes, socks and shoes off, just keeping his black form fitting boxer briefs on. He whistled his way to the bathroom and stopped the tune when he set his olive eyes at the image reflected on the mirror. A conceited smile stretched across his handsome face as he turned his body sideways, so he could admire the tattoo he just had inked on his left arm. A long, high-pitched whistle replaced the happy tune as he ran a finger along the tattooed armband. He playfully jumped the gap between the inked armband and rested the finger on the lowest point of the center part of the design, a downside triangle.

"Creation…" He spoke to his reflection while pressing his finger into the circle that adorned the lower corner of the inked triangle.

"…preservation… He said next, when he dragged his finger to the top right corner of the triangle.

"…destruction!" He shouted, this time a wicked expression replaced vain, as he dragged the finger across to the top left corner of the triangle, and back down to the origin point.

It was the symbol that the old Envy proudly sported over his forehead, a symbol that encompassed the homunculus beliefs which was now "his" beliefs, or more correctly, "their" beliefs. Exactly one year ago he had melded with Envy in a sinful communion of souls and now personalities and memories didn't have a master, they were all one and the same to them. There was no more "I", but "Us". Creator and Destroyer together for common Preservation.

Alphonse chuckled at his musings then ran a hand along his medium length hair, letting the hand rest on the nape. Long bangs settled back in place and he smiled, proud of his natural beauty. Today was a special day and he wanted to look stunning for such joyous occasion. The blonde absently held his long locks and looked through the mirror, at the dark patch of pin straight hair that took root at the nape. The patch tapered the v-shape fringe of his current hair style. Amazingly, that patch of hair had turned greenish-black, proof that he was changing on the outside as he had been changing on the inside.

With that thought still lingering on his mind, he made his way back to the bedroom and grabbed a kunai from the knife case then brought it along with him to the bathroom. Again, he placed himself in front of the mirror, but this time he ran the sharp edge of the knife across his tongue. Warm blood quickly filled his mouth and he savored its metallic tang when he closed it. He also closed his eyes, concentrating his senses on that tingling sensation that excited him so much, as the open flesh slowly but steadily pieced itself back together. When he opened his olive eyes, he pulled his fully healed tongue out to confirm that it healed then made a funny face at his reflection. He was pleased. It had taken ten seconds less than the last time for the wound to close, it was not much, but it meant that there had been some progress in his "evolution".

That word reminded him that it was time for the main event of the joyous occasion to commence. He grinned maniacally at his reflection as he turned on his heel, heading downstairs and into his favorite part of the townhouse, the Shrine.

The wood steps creaked under the weight of Alphonse's bare feet while he made his way down to the basement. As he went down the stairs, he playfully twirled the same kunai he had used on his tongue around his index finger as he neared the Sacrificial Circle, the heretic name he decided to give to the hybrid array that made it possible to infuse a soul into his being. A vile smile quickly spread across his face when his left foot touched the outer area of the circle, which was alchemically etched into the concrete, and made his way to the new victim —his new Sacrifice— who had been patiently waiting for him on the middle of the circle, hogtied and gagged since the early that morning.

Alphonse hid the kunai away from his victim by holding it behind his broad back, then crouched next to the victim. He made sure to keep a smile set in place while he caressed the side of the victim's face with his free hand. The victim flinched at the contact while the nostrils began flaring wildly in fear, or was it anger? Alphonse couldn't tell. The victim grunted some unintelligible words behind the gag ball as brown eyes fixed on Alphonse. The blonde seemed to be pleased with the current state his victim was in, and decided to get rid of the gag.

"What is it, Gordy-love?" The blonde cooed at the heavy-set man while throwing the ball gag across the room, which landed somewhere near his alchemy lab with a shallow thud.

Alphonse then cupped the man's cheek and slap at it slightly, making a flapping sound as the fat vibrated against his palm.

"Al, what the fuck is wrong with you!" Gordon croaked after moving around his jaw, which was sorely stiff from long hours of being forced open by the gag.

"Aw, but we thought you loved kink."

Gordon scowled and tried to wiggle his aching extremities to no avail. "Get me off these ropes—" He huffed, the position was taking a great toll on his heavy body.

Gordon's demand only made the blonde laugh at him out loud.

"So you can what? Fuck us?" Alphonse smirked. "We don't think so! You see, we don't do pigs."

Gordon scowled at the offensive comment. He had been invited to come over the flirty blonde's alkahestry practice for a special treatment that said blonde promised would blow his mind away. He had fallen for the young man's cajoling and double entendres, and had been in front of the alkahestry practice fifteen minutes prior to the appointed time. Alphonse had been more than eager to take him downstairs to the place where he sincerely thought he was going to fuck the blonde's brains out.

"What is that you want from me?"

Alphonse's face was now just barely inches away from Gordon's. He was so close, that he could see himself reflected on the man's eyes.

"You'll know soon enough!"

With that sentiment still lingering in the air, Alphonse drew the kunai from behind his back and stabbed the bulge of fat that splayed to the sides of the man's body as he laid securely bound on the cold concrete floor.

Gordon screamed loudly as the blonde carefully twisted the sharp metal inside of him, after all he didn't want the fatso to die too soon.

"Amazing! It really is like cutting through butter!" Alphonse said to himself with fascination, ignoring the man's cries altogether.

Soon the loud screaming did ruin the blonde's moment, so Alphonse rewarded Gordon with a dark glare as he sliced sideways, making the man howl in agony.

"Scream all you want Gordy-love! Scream! Scream! Scream! You see, these walls are soundproof so we can have lots of fun without any interruptions."

Alphonse yanked the knife off from the man's side and shook the fat that was caught in it with a quick flick of the wrist.

A muffled feral growl was suddenly heard coming from below the floor and the blonde sat on his legs as he tried to listen for it, a second time.

His olive eyes set upon the chained metal door on the opposite side of the hybrid array, a door which he alchemically created to connect directly to the sewers. After a few seconds had passed by, he saw the door shake against the chains.

"Looks like our friends have arrived for the celebration!" He said with utter joy, referring to the starved chimeras that still lived in the depths of Central City.

Gordon was heaving now from pain, but managed to give Alphonse a nasty look.

"You're crazy!" He wheezed.

Alphonse turned his attention back to the man and knelt in front of him. He grabbed Gordon by the jaw, with fingers painfully digging on the fat cheeks as he squeezed his face.

"You know that's exactly what Nikki said to us precisely one year ago."

Gordon's eyes showed confusion and Alphonse let go of the man's face. He sat back on the floor, now with crossed arms and legs, looking at Gordon while he shook his head in disapproval.

"Tsk. Tsk. What a shame… so you forgot about your little blonde bitch already?" Alphonse chastised.

"I don't know any Nikkis'!" Gordon screamed and flinched in pain.

The blonde cocked an eyebrow.

"You really have forgotten her, huh? That's too bad… We were planning on making the Execution far less painless for you… if you just would have admitted to the truth."

Alphonse took the kunai and ran it against the length of the man's bound arm, making him scream again. The rivulets of blood that quickly appeared across the new wound made Alphonse's face lit up with bloodlust.

"We'll gut you nice and slow, piggy…" He said softly, absently licking his lips in the process.

"Andrea!" Gordon squealed. "I was seeing Andrea around this time last year!"

"Andrea?"

Alphonse was taken aback by the new discovery, his eyes suddenly looking distant.

"She really was a conniving bitch…"

The blonde's words reached the tortured man's ears and his eyes became impossibly wide.

"You're the boyfriend!" Gordon cried out upon the stark realization.

"So she talked to you about me? How commendable of her."

"What did you do with her?"

The wounded man demanded. He had been worried, secretly looking for her whereabouts, since her sudden disappearance a year ago.

The blonde tap an innocent finger over his lips.

"Let's see… after confronting her about her cheating, we had to show her proper respect. Her poor ass didn't agree with our methods—"

Gordon's pupils contracted with what the blonde was implying.

"You sick fuck…"

"Not as sick as you, Gordy-love! We're not the ones who let ourselves to be hogtied for depraved acts in the first place."

Gordon narrowed his eyes.

"You know, we were amazed to have discovered that you also liked fucking boys…"

Gordon wheezed as he scowled.

"That's why you approached me that night at the club…"

"Luring you here has been most exhilarating!" The blonde provided with a mischievous grin.

Alphonse looked at the bloodied kunai then back at Gordon.

"Enough talk, darling."

He stabbed the man in the ribs with force, drawing blood and some flesh as he pulled the knife out.

Gordon looked at the blonde in utter disbelief as Alphonse drove the knife back in.

"Now be a good Sacrifice and die!" Alphonse yelled, as he mercilessly stabbed Gordon's life away.

oo-OOO-oo

Alphonse's eyes refocused and his breath was returning to normal. He was laying on his back, looking at the plastered ceiling. He had been absently laughing as the ecstasy of the soul acquisition was being completed. After Gordon's soul was completely absorbed, he felt sticky, and remembered that he was laying on the pool of that pig's blood. He looked to his right to contemplate the bound corpse of the obese man, now ashen due to the loss of blood. He grinned at the dead man. He was so proud of this Execution. Sacrifice number thirteen had been glorious, after all, the right sacrifice had been chosen to celebrate the anniversary of his rebirth.

Not exactly human, not exactly homunculus, Alphonse was a new type of being, and he took pride on that, both did, because he knew that Envy felt the same way. Alphonse mentally thanked Nichole Swan or Andrea or whatever the fuck her name was, because without her, he would have never gone through with testing the hybrid array in the first place. She had been the first Sacrifice, her suffering a necessary evil, a stepping stone in the acquisition of perfection. Memories of her frightened eyes, her ear-piercing screams and her hot insides still reverberated throughout his hybrid body. Raping her in the most hideous of ways, hadn't been his initial intent, however it had been the by-product of his pent-up anger. But thanks to her agony, he realized that a Sacrifice's suffering played an important part in the energy of an acquired soul. He hadn't raped his second Sacrifice. He just had killed her swiftly and cleanly. The nameless woman didn't suffer much and the collected energy had been weak. Envy had warned him about it and he had regretted not listening to the homunculus in the first place. The blonde had to grab another Sacrifice, a poor woman who Envy had creatively inspired him to torture to the point of pissing… her soul had been the most delicious.

The difference between the killings of both women, piqued his innate curiosity, so he decided to experiment with his future Sacrifices. He chose men, he chose women, and noticed that gender didn't make a difference in the signature of the absorbed souls. However, torturing the Sacrifices either physically, emotionally or sexually, made a great difference in the energy signature of the souls absorbed. Physical suffering provided the most intense results and emotional suffering provided the weakest results. Sexual suffering provided unstable results. However the combination of the three provided the most exquisite and exhilarating results. Sacrifice number nine had proved to be the best one yet. Along the way, he also found that his own emotions also played an important part in the potency of the energetic signature in a collected soul. Sacrifice number twelve confirmed his suspicions.

A surge of mixed emotions had crossed his mind when he first laid eyes upon a handsome young man while standing in line at his favorite coffee shop. Inadvertly, the young man quickly reminded him of his falling apart with Edward. Since his rebirth, Alphonse felt a loss of connection to his older brother, an issue that still bothered him to this day. The resemblance of the young man to Edward was uncanny, and he had to ask the man for his name. Alphonse thought it was ironic that the strawberry blonde was also named Edward but he found it even more ironic that said young man began flirting with him… and he couldn't help but to smile.

He also couldn't help himself after that fateful meeting, so he brought the man to his place. His distorted views about his own brother became clear once this Edward's soul was being absorbed by his hybrid body. The ecstasy he felt from absorbing that Edward left him satiated in ways he never thought could be possible, and it made him think about his other unresolved issue, a remnant from his old self… the one he can't dare even to mention.

Alphonse had to convince himself to make Sacrifice number thirteen, the Sacrifice that would forever exorcise him from that temptation with the deep ocean eyes. He went to one of the night spots he frequented for hunting, and that's when he spotted the fat pig. He knew that such golden opportunity would not repeat itself, so he forgo his original plan and decided to take his revenge on the bastard that mocked him behind his back.

Alphonse had to quickly hide the dumbfounded look on his face when he recognized that fatso was actually hitting on him. He would have praised a god for his good luck if he would've believed in one. Getting closer to the man had been easy and cajoling him to come over to his place had been a piece of cake. Yes, he withstood a whole night of leering, disgusting touches and lewd words, but in the end, it had all been worth it. He had managed to wrap Gordon around his finger. Convincing the fat turd to get all tied up in order to play a kink game, had been the easiest thing he's ever done.

The blonde sat up and rested his bloodied forearms on top of his bent knees. There was now an incessant banging on the chained door.

"You should be glad, piggy." The blonde said to the inert corpse. "At least your fat ass will help those poor chimera put on some weight."

Alphonse stood up and frowned at the bloody mess spread all over the array. An eyebrow twitched in irritation and he sighed.

"Damn urges…" He mumbled to himself, referring to his unbidden bloodlust, as frustration settled in.

In the excitement of planning, he had forgotten to place a plastic cover over the array so cleanup would've been easier. He wouldn't dare use alchemy to clean up the mess over the circle, afraid that it would rebound because he was the only living thing on it. He wouldn't want to give himself freely to that damn Gate now that he had become a new type of being. Sighing heavily, he had resigned to clean the bloody mess the old fashioned way, but first he had to get rid of the corpse.

Alphonse rolled the heavy body until it was sitting next to the chained door. He went around the door clapped his hands and knelt down to transmute the chains open. The banging on the door became erratic as the chimeras tried to open the heavy metal door.

"Stay back!" Alphonse yelled and the chimeras stopped.

He grabbed the large ring and swung the door open, then quickly stepped back. The chimeras didn't dare to attack him and he thought it was because they sensed Envy inside of him, but he maintained his distance nonetheless. A couple of red eyes shone in the dark corridor that connected the basement to the sewer system. An impatient paw, reptilian in appearance, clawed at Gordon's lifeless body and rolled it into the dark tunnel. Alphonse approached the corridor and looked at how a bunch of chimeras were dragging the body to the depths of the tunnel. Soon after the sounds of bones cracking and flesh being torn could be heard. The blonde chuckled.

"Bon appetit!" He said to the biological aberrations as he closed the heavy door on them.

He transmuted the chain back in place, stood up and turned on his heel. He sighed heavily again while he grabbed a mop. He cleaned fast, because the prospect of a nice hot bath sounded good at that point.

Alphonse looked satisfied. The place was clean, he had collected a precious soul, had exacted revenge… yes it definitely had been a special day.

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Reviews are greatly appreciated and highly encouraged as it lets me know how the story is faring with all of you.** Thanks for reading!**


	3. One

A/N: This chapter is unbeta'd. Please forgive any typos and grammatical errors that you may encounter along the way.

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**Chapter warning:** This chapter contains strong sexual situations. **The very detailed chapter is posted at Archive of Our Own (AO3).** There's a link in my profile page if you wish to read the original version.

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**One**

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The echoes of his military-issued boots became louder as Edward made his way down the long corridor on the East wing of Central Command. Long, confident strides quickly took him to Brigadier General Mustang's office. He knocked on the door twice then entered. Mustang's underlings quickly stood up to salute him, as he made his way to First Lieutenant Heymans Breda. He stifled a groan when the First Lieutenant stood up and saluted him accordingly, as the chain of command dictated. He really hated military protocols, thinking they were just imposed on to others in order to feed the already over-sized egos of those at the top of the pyramid. Yes, he was a Lieutenant Colonel, but only in title, as he liked to keep the workplace environment as easygoing as possible, only flashing his title when he absolutely needed to.

"At ease." Edward said to the redhead. "I'm here to meet with the Brigadier General."

He slightly clenched his jaw, trying to diffuse his irritation about all the protocol bullshit he had to follow now that he was a military official. Breda noticed the irritation and snorted, making Edward slightly more annoyed than he already was.

"Acknowledged, Lieutenant Colonel, I will tell the General that you've arrived."

The blonde's eyebrows twitched when he noticed a slight trace of amusement in the Lieutenant's voice.

The redhead did a one-eighty, walked the short distance between his desk and the Brigadier General's office and knocked on the door. He quickly announced Edward's presence. The young man could hear a muffled "send him in" as the Lieutenant's eyes fell back on him. Breda opened the door wide and stepped aside. Edward glanced at the stout man before walking in.

"Good morning, Lieutenant Colonel Elric." Roy greeted from behind his desk, making sure to welcome the young man with one of those smug smiles that he hated so much.

The door closed behind Edward, making the blonde glance over his shoulder, before looking back at his superior.

"Good morning, Brigadier General Mustang." Edward greeted back, using his most indifferent tone, the one that irritated his superior the most.

Roy looked unimpressed with the blonde's tactics, but nevertheless, he pointed Edward to sit down.

"So Mustang, what is this oh _so_ important thing that you needed to tell me so fucking early in the morning?" Edward complained as he sat down, clearly letting his superior know how ticked off he was by appointed time of the meeting. Usually Mustang just called him over for stupid things and he really was not in the mood to deal with that type of shit so early in the morning.

"Are you always this charming in the morning?" Roy asked sarcastically.

"Seeing your ugly mug so early in the morning is what creates the all the magic for me." Ed gibed while crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Roy smirked at the witty remark.

"The ladies might disagree with your comment."

Edward now confidently crossed his flesh leg over his automail leg.

"Don't say that so loud, _Brigadier General_, or the Colonel might hear you." Edward replied with a smug smile of his own.

"The Colonel is not the jealous type, I can assure you of that." Roy responded, highly unimpressed by the younger man's smartass comment.

The blonde rolled his eyes.

"Fine, _Ladies' Man_, can you please tell me why you summoned me here so fucking early?"

Edward made sure to punctuate the last three words.

"I missed laying eyes at your new, rugged style." Roy taunted as he ran his thumb and index fingers down the sides of his mouth, combing a mock beard.

Edward twitched an eyebrow.

"Do you have a problem with my facial hair?"

"Yes, I do. As a matter of fact, I think you look _so_ manly with it."

Roy's teasing made Edward blush slightly, and the older man couldn't help but to laugh at the blonde's expense.

"However, I do have a problem with your hair." He added.

Absently, Edward ran a hand along his long, loose hair before glaring back at Roy. His long bangs and hair antenna were gone, replaced by a slicked back hairstyle. Having his hair styled back, clearly showed his strong facial features, which were only accented by his neatly trimmed Van Dyke.

"Ugh! That again?" The blonde groaned. "It really is not your fucking business."

No, it really wasn't Roy's fucking business but he really liked to tease him about it nonetheless.

"It really bothered you that much that McKinney treated you like a brat?"

Edward immediately glared at his superior and the older man knew he just reopened an old wound. Seven months ago Edward had to respond to a break in at the newly appointed City Major's house. Since it had been his day off, Edward got to the scene wearing civilian clothes. Roy had the unfortunate task to explain to the City Major, by phone, that Edward was indeed who he said he was; that he was part of the military and that he was the newly appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the Intelligence Division, and not some brat who didn't know his place.

"He's a fat idiot." Edward scoffed.

"Well, can you blame him? You are one of the youngest officers in Central at the moment, if not the youngest of all."

It was a feat that even himself couldn't pull off.

The blonde's mood soured every time he was reminded of that fact, as if he didn't have enough of that type of petty treatment when he was still a State Alchemist. It was exactly because he looked so young that he decided to change his appearance in order to look older, so simpletons like McKinney would take him seriously. Edward sighed, fed up with the current topic of conversation.

"Can we _please_ get back to what you needed me here for?" Edward groused.

Roy knew that the blonde had reached the limit of his… _short_ patience, so he leaned on his elbows and steepled his hands as his demeanor turned serious.

"You know that a week from now is the seventh anniversary of the Promised Day."

Edward's irritation softened when he realized that Roy was finished pestering him.

"Yeah, so what?"

"Well, the City Major…" Roy raised a hand to Edward, to stop the blonde from cutting him off, "…he wants to celebrate the heroes that saved Central from falling into the hands of the Drachmans."

The blonde's lips curled downwards. He hated how the populace had been spoon-fed with a blatant lie about what really transpired on the Promised Day, even though it was the best course to take. Who in their right mind would believe that Amestris was going to fall prey to the mad alchemical creations that were Father and his Sins?

"Why is the military backing that idiot's idea?"

Roy gave Edward a small smile.

"Because the military has been seen under a bad light since the Civil War from six years ago."

Edward huffed in irritation and shifted his weight on the seat.

"So the military wants to do some PR stunt by using us?"

"That's a good way of putting it…"

Suddenly Edward's eyes grew wide.

"Are you whoring us out, Bastard!"

Roy felt slightly insulted by the unfounded accusation.

"I wouldn't use the outcome of that horrible day for a frivolous promotion. General Whitman is the man behind the event."

The blonde remained pensive as he tried to put a face to the name. He quickly remembered who the man was. Major General Whitman had been put at head of South Command after the Quíjì scandal, and just recently he had been promoted to Central as a full-fledged General. In only six months, General Whitman had become a strong influence in the Grumman regime, and a strong contender and fierce rival for Mustang.

"Just great." He grumbled as an afterthought. "There's no way of escaping this travesty?"

"I'm afraid not." Roy shook his head, scowling slightly at the prospect of playing by that man's rules.

He opened the top drawer and handed Edward an ornate gold trimmed invitation. The blonde opened the invitation and read the contents before folding it back and shoving it into an inside pocket of his military uniform.

A thought crossed to his mind, unannounced.

"Is Al invited?"

"Of course he is, after all, with out his help we wouldn't be here having this conversation as we currently are."

"I wouldn't call it a conversation…" Edward muttered without thinking, and Roy chuckled.

"Admit it Fullmetal, you live for these type of moments." He quipped.

Edward rolled his eyes. "Please, I just had breakfast— And don't call me Fullmetal!"

The blonde's thoughts came back to Alphonse and his face immediately looked distant. He hadn't seen or heard from his younger brother in so long that he didn't know how he was going to react, once he sees him at the ceremony.

"Are you ok there, Ed?"

"M…" The blonde mumbled, distracted.

"I said if you're ok?" Roy repeated, concern now showing on his face.

"It's nothing." He shrugged, however his shoulders tensed slightly at the question.

"I can drop off Al's invitation." The blonde commented, trying to change the direction of the conversation.

"It's too late for that. It was already sent by courier to his domicile."

Roy kept silently eyeing the blonde, he knew that Edward and his brother had become somewhat estranged during the past year, and he was waiting to see if his subordinate would open up about the sensitive subject.

Edward noticed what the older man was trying to do and he mentally scowled at the man for his meddling. The younger man took his silver watch from his pant pocket, flip it open, and impassively looked at the time.

"Are we done here, Brigadier General?" Edward pressed on, the mask of indifference had been set back in place. He put the watch back into his pant pocket and his golden eyes fell back on Roy.

The older man shook his head then sighed.

"Yes. You are dismissed, Lieutenant Colonel."

Edward quickly got up and made his way to the door.

"Later, Bastard." He said with his back turned to the man as the door closed behind him.

Roy stared at the closed door then got back to his tedious work.

oo-OOO-oo

Winry swung the magnifying glass in front of the automail hand she had just mounted on a c-clamp. She looked to her right and browsed through the tool box for her precision slotted screwdriver set, and took out the 1.5 mm screwdriver she needed to finish the connection of the carpals to the metacarpals. She took her gloves off because she needed fine movements for such delicate procedure. She stuck her tongue out slightly to the right as she carefully screwed the first carpal on to its corresponding metacarpal. Her concentration broke when she heard loud racketing coming from down the hall. She became so startled that she jerked her hand and the tiny screw was sent flying, landing between a gap on the wooden floor.

Immediately she growled her frustration away while she strangled the screwdriver on her right hand. Sighing, she dropped then aforementioned item back into the case, and with a slam of the door, she exited the guest-room-turned-automail-shop and stomped her way down the hall. Winry noticed that the light on the bathroom was on and began walking slower until she made a full stop, as her common sense kicked in. It was far too early for Edward to be back from work. She bit her lower lip, Edward always made sure to announce his presence when he got home from work— What if there was a stranger in the house? Her eyes widened as her imagination ran wild. She walked quietly back to the tiny workshop to grab her trusty wrench. Winry quickly found it, and as she turned around to head back into the hallway, she saw a shadow reflected the wall, quickly moving to her direction, and she panicked. Winry shut her eyes, instinctively threw the wrench at the approaching figure, as she screamed. She opened one eye and saw the wrench embedded in the hallway wall, next to it was a wide-eyed Edward, looking like he had seen Death itself.

"What the hell, Winry!" Edward yelled as his wide, golden eyes returned back to normal.

"Ed?"

With hands akimbo, she tilted her head to her right. "What the—? I thought you were a burglar or something— Aren't you supposed to be at work?"

Her eyebrows arched, demanding an explanation from the blonde.

"Dammit Winry!"

Edward looked at the wrench encrusted in the wall.

"Are you trying to kill me?"

"When did you get home?" Winry asked, completely disregarding the fact that she assaulted her poor husband with a flying object.

"About two hours ago." He answered while he tried to dislodge the wrench from the wall.

He lost balance when he finally pulled the wrench from the drywall. He walked into the room and handed the tool-of-death back to his wife.

Winry held the wrench with both hands.

"Why didn't you knock on the door?" Winry asked while she followed Edward with her eyes.

"I did… you didn't answer. Now I know why."

Edward was now standing next to the mounted automail hand and was inspecting it closely. He glanced over his shoulder when she asked him the question then he set his eyes back to the intricate work.

"This one looks very complicated." Edward said while he inspected Winry's new design.

Winry felt slightly mortified, her hands tightened around the wrench. It was a bad habit of hers to get so immersed in her work, that she forgets about the world all around her.

"Did you eat?"

Her husband's words snap her out of her musings.

"I had a late breakfast." She admitted.

Edward gave her a flat stare. He was slightly upset with her response.

"Win, it's past five o'clock…" He chastised.

"I'm not hungry, really."

She usually wasn't, not when she was completely immersed in her work.

Edward frowned.

"I'll fix you something quick." He responded as he started fidgeting with his long, loose hair.

Winry became entranced, as her husband combed his long hair with his fingers, bringing his hair up into a high ponytail. She noticed that his bangs have gotten noticeably longer, now extending about three inches below his strong jaw. Her eyes flickered while her heart fluttered as she contemplated his rugged beauty.

"Ed?"

Edward looked at her, his arms still holding his hair up while his teeth bit on the hair band he was going to use to fasten the ponytail.

"Yeah?" He answered with clenched teeth.

"Why don't you go back to this hairstyle?"

His lips pursed around the hair band.

"You know why." He spat, inadvertly scoffing the words as an image of the idiotic City Major came to mind.

"Can't you leave that incident in the past?" She replied, knowing very well where Edward's hostility was coming from.

Edward finished fastening the hair band around his hair, and looked at his wife with a softer expression than the one he gave her before.

"Does it bother you that much?"

"It's just…" She looked away, "…it's not you."

Winry gave him a small smile when she met his eyes.

Edward smiled back and walked over to his wife. He placed his hands on her shoulders and slid them down, gently caressing her arms along the way until he gathered her hands into his.

"I will change my hairstyle back if that's what you want me to do."

A smug smile spread across his face.

"But I'm keeping the beard." He grinned.

Winry raised an eyebrow.

"Why?" She asked with extreme curiosity.

"Because deep inside you dig my beard." Edward replied, cockily, making Winry give him a mock-glare.

"Says who? You?" She scoffed.

Edward took her arrogant words as a challenge. He pressed himself against her body, effectively pinching her between the work table and his strong body. Winry's cheeks took a nice shade of pink as she sucked in a breath. Edward chuckled at her reaction while he raised a hand to her sports bra, hooking a finger on the pull tab of the zipper. He began to pull the zipper down while maintaining his golden irises fixed on his wife's now flustered face.

"Your body…" He said huskily, as he liberated her breasts from confinement, "…your body says you like my beard."

Edward raised Winry and sat her on the ledge of the table, he then arched his body over hers, and slowly began kissing her neck, making sure that his facial hair brushed against her soft skin.

"Ed…" Winry breathed, her mouth slightly parted while she relished on the contrasting sensations.

Winry held on to him tight as Edward continued kissing her along the neck. Her mouth hung open and her head was spinning, as she became intoxicated with his ministrations. When had he become this good? She began moving her hips, rubbing herself firmly against his hand.

"Don't stop…"

She exhaled.

Winry clumsily moved a hand between her spread legs and made her way to her husband's lounge pants. She found his bulge and stroke it over the fabric. Edward drew back from her neck, half lidded golden eyes now gazed into azure. He absently liked his lips as he retired the teasing hand from her. Winry whined at the lost of contact and lightly frowned at him for not indulging her, on her request.

Edward kept staring at her flushed face as he himself was now breathing shakily. He plundered her lips this time, the drive to ravish her mouth was intense. Winry released the hold she had on Edward and brought her hand to his head, digging her fingers on the long hair, messing his ponytail. Edward drew back from the hard kiss and placed his hands over her butt cheeks, raising her from the table. Winry wrapped her legs around her husband as he carried her over to the cot she kept in the room for taking quick naps when she was working on rushed orders, and gently laid her over the spring mattress.

Not taking his eyes away from her, he quickly took off his t-shirt and tossed it over the work table. He also undid his pants which he let drop, along with his boxers, to pool around his feet. She was hastily undoing the knot on her overalls when Edward pushed her hand away.

"Let me do it."

He stepped out of his clothes then kneeled between her spread legs and undid the knot, Winry raised her hips and he pulled off her work suit along with her underwear. He gathered the clothes into a ball and dropped them to the wooden floor. Edward admired his wife's beauty from his vantage point. Winry looked back at him and smiled.

"Win, you're so beautiful… so mine…" He muttered as he descended between her legs.

He closed his eyes, savoring the feeling of being connected to Winry, in the most intimate of ways. It never ceased to amaze him how his heart always skipped a beat when he shared this level of intimacy with her. He opened his golden orbs and suddenly became lost in the ocean of her blue. He smirked, remembering the day he proposed to Winry like a bumbling idiot at the train station. How dare him say he was only going to give her half of his life when it was clear she already had it all without out him noticing?

He lowered his head and kissed her softly as he rolled his hips, the eliciting moans with every movement. Edward wrapped his arms around her back, rocking both their bodies backwards. He now sat on bent knees with Winry sitting on top. Winry knew she wasn't going to last much longer in that position, and arched her back as she reached her climax. Her twitching walls drove Edward to his climax soon after. His breaths came out harsh, and grunted when he released himself deep inside of his wife, coating her with his seed. Edward pressed a sweaty forehead to her shoulder where Winry could hear and feel her husband's satisfaction against her hot skin. She kissed the top of his head while she caressed the warm back. Lazy, golden eyes peeked at her before moving to claim her lips once more.

"I love you, Winry." He confessed, after pressing his forehead to his wife's.

If someone would have asked him if he believed in soul mates back when he was a bratty teen, he would have just laughed, pinning the concept to the foolishness of sappy people. He looked back at those satiated blue eyes, knowing very well that sappy was a good thing to be.

oo-OOO-oo

Winry finished swallowing a chunk of turkey sandwich that Edward prepared for both, after their steamy rendezvous back in her work room. Her eyes spotted an ornate gold trimmed invitation tossed haphazardly over the rest of the correspondence that was spread all over the dinning room table. She placed the sandwich back on the plate and leaned over the table to pick up the invitation. She opened it and read the contents.

"Ed?" She shouted, so her husband could hear her from the kitchen area.

"Yeah?" He mumbled behind a chewed piece of pickle that still hung from his mouth as he approached the dining room table.

Winry rolled her eyes at Edward and shook head, annoyed at her husband's lack of manners.

"What's this?" She asked after sighing.

Edward's face hardened. He placed the rest of the pickle down on his plate, next to his sandwich.

"It's to celebrate the Heroes of Amestris…"

Winry blinked in astonishment then looked back at the gold letterpress letters in the invitation.

"Really?"

She looked back at her husband and noticed how stiff his shoulders have become.

"Why are you not happy? I mean you did save us all from oblivion."

"The whole thing is damn farce!" Edward spat while crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Winry waited for the blonde to elaborate.

"It's a PR stunt promoted by that buffoon we have for City Major."

Winry could see seething in Edward's face every time he had to mention Charles McKinney.

"Still… you do deserve some recognition, Ed…" She stopped mid-sentence as Alphonse popped up in her head.

Her features became somber.

"Is Al invited?" She said in a serious tone.

Edward's eyes suddenly became distant and her eyebrows became worried. Both haven't seen Alphonse since the Holidays, and that was almost half a year ago. His visit at that time had been so cold that Edward sunk into a mild depression. He took blame for Alphonse's rejection, as unfounded as it was.

"Edward, maybe this occasion is an opportunity for you both to talk… maybe Al just needed time to put himself back together, I mean, he did take his breakup with his girlfriend pretty hard—"

Winry narrowed her eyes when she realized that it had been a little over a year since that happened.

"I hope so Winry." He said with a sad smile. "He didn't even picked up the telephone when I called him to say happy birthday to him…"

The blonde became pensive.

Winry felt immense sympathy for her husband. She stood up, went around the table and hugged him from behind.

"Maybe this celebration will change things for the better." She spoke softly to his ear then hugged him again, before planting a kiss on the side of his face.

Edward smiled with candor. He scooped Winry and sat her on his lap. He nuzzled his face against her clavicle, taking in her natural fragrance when he inhaled. He then pressed a smile on her ivory skin as he exhaled through his nose, thinking how lucky he was to have such an extraordinary woman by his side, always making sure that he stood strong.

"Thank you, Win." He said as he hugged her tenderly.

Winry kissed the top of his head and held on to the warm embrace just a little bit longer.

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Reviews are greatly appreciated and highly encouraged as it lets me know how the story is faring with all of you. **Thanks for reading!**


	4. Two

A/N: This chapter is unbeta'd. Please forgive any typos and grammatical errors that you may encounter along the way.

**Now the second part of the story begins…**

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**Chapter warning:** This chapter contains crude language and mindfuckery.

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**Two**

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Edward held Winry by the arm as they made their way to Clover Amphitheater at Central Park(1). The blonde looked around, and could see that there was far more people that he expected gathered for the event of that late afternoon. Aggravated by that fact, he snorted and rolled his eyes. Winry noticed and pulled at his arm.

"Ed!" She scolded then sighed.

"Please promise me that you'll behave."

His lips pressed into a thin, disagreeing line, but then he looked into her bright, azure eyes.

"Yeah, yeah…" He grumbled.

How could he say "no" to her?

They continued their way to the main entrance where an usher asked Edward for his invitation. Edward handed it to the young man, whose eyes went back and forth from the name in the invitation to Edward's face. The usher hesitated, the incredulity written on his face was clear. He couldn't believe that the blonde man standing in front of him was actually a Lieutenant Colonel of the Amestrian military. Edward gritted his teeth. Even with the beard, the full dress uniform, the neatly braided hair and the Officer's hat adorning his head; he still had problems validating his credentials to civilians. When Edward was about to rip a new one on the poor man, the usher pointed them to their respective section. The blonde gave the usher a glare of a thousand deaths as he yanked the invitation from the man's hands then headed down the passageway. The young couple reached another usher, this time a woman, and she explained to them that guests of honor and their escorts had different seating. Still seething from the previous encounter, Edward was about to say something nasty to the woman, but Winry pulled at his arm once again. This time her blue orbs threatened Edward, and her quiet gaze told him to shut up and follow instructions. The blonde huffed, but nevertheless, he kissed his wife on the cheek before reluctantly parting ways.

Edward climbed up the stairs that led to the stage and sat on a fabric covered chair located to the right side of the podium. He exhaled a steadying breath as he looked at all the people gathered for the celebration, thinking about how much he despised being put out on display like he was some sort of odd curiosity for all to see. As soon as he sat, Edward saw his Commanding Officer coming his way.

"Aren't you supposed to seat with the hotshots? Edward gibed when the older man approached him.

"Well, I am one of the guests of honor, so as luck has it, my seat is right here next to you."

Roy gave Edward an irritating smile that set the young man off.

"Pft! Whatever."

Edward looked again at the crowd, and quickly spotted Winry, who was sitting close to the stage. His already foul mood quickly changed once he began contemplating her natural beauty. She looked so radiant in her marigold dress that he couldn't help the stupid grin that appeared on his face.

"Young love…" Roy teased, quickly bursting Edward's bubble with his out of place comment.

The blonde gritted his teeth and piercing gold eyes glared at his superior, however, and to the older man's surprise, Edward just crossed his arms in front of his chest and remained silent.

Roy openly stared at the blonde as if he was a complete stranger. Edward noticed and groaned.

"I promised my wife I was going to behave, so don't push your luck." Edward explained wryly.

The older man blinked, dumbfounded. Mrs. Rockbell-Elric had achieved what he himself couldn't. The thought in itself was funny, so he chuckled.

"Whipped?" Roy quipped and Edward snorted.

"I didn't know you wanted to talk about your pathetic life, Bastard." The blonde retorted.

Roy was about to come up with a witty comeback but Colonel Hawkeye had just walked on to the stage. Unconsciously Roy straightened himself once he saw the word "behave" written all over the Colonel's stern gaze. His mouth turned downwards once he heard his subordinate snigger. He looked at the young man only to find him with a toothy grin plastered on his face. Suddenly the young man worded "whipped" as he flailed an invisible whip at him. Roy cordially smiled at Edward in amicable response, but he already was planning how he was going to get back at the Brat for his insolence.

A few minutes later, Major Alex Louis Armstrong made his way to the stage. Edward did a second round and saw that General Whitman, his subordinates and Charles aka Fucktard McKinney had walked in from the opposite side of the stage. He scanned the crowd again and noticed that Alphonse was now sitting next to Winry.

"What the—!"

Confused, he directed his attention towards his superior.

"Hey Mustang! Why is Al not sitting with us?" He asked curtly, already scowling at the older man before giving him the chance to answer.

Roy sighed as he mentally prepared himself for the inevitable confrontation with the fiery blonde.

"He won't be seating with us, Ed."

Edward quickly became enraged.

"You manipulative asshole! That's why you sent the invitation over to Al instead of having me deliver it personally—!"

"_General Whitman_ and the City Major…" Roy cut the blonde off, "…are expecting to see a seven-foot steel armor _and not_ an average size young man." He hissed harshly.

Thankfully the frank words reached the hot-headed blonde as the young man snorted in response.

Edward clenched his jaw, hard, as he looked towards where his brother and Winry were seated, before menacing gold orbs bore a hole into his Commanding Officer. He looked over to the General and the City Major. Both were already sitting down at their respective places, just waiting for the MC to commence. He cursed inwardly, knowing very well that the Bastard was right. Because of tactless assholes like those two, his younger brother must remain relatively in anonymity, hiding in the shadows so no further harm could ever reach him.

"Remember that this is a PR stunt. _Your words,_ Lieutenant Colonel." Roy said, his stern words reaching the blonde's logic.

"I know…"

Edward set eyes again on Alphonse, who was now looking at him. He inadvertly scowled, thinking about the absurdity of it all. He shook his head and looked away, already feeling sorry for his younger brother. Hopefully Alphonse would understand the real reason why he was going to be snubbed that evening.

oo-OOO-oo

Winry was the first person that Alphonse noted as he made his way down the multitude. He couldn't help but to notice her, since the blonde shone so brightly, just like the sun itself, in that golden dress she was wearing. He hated the fluttery feeling that quickly took over his insides. How Winry held so much power over his feelings was still a mystery to him. Alphonse absently combed his long bangs with his fingers as he approached the beautiful blonde. He even made sure that his clothes were tidy, hoping that his looks could make an impression on Winry.

"Hi, Winry." Alphonse said with his most charming smile.

He was pleased to see that Winry looked breathless once she laid eyes on him. He was even more pleased to notice the subtle pink color her high cheeks had taken as she looked at him from head to toe.

"You look stunning." He said as he grabbed her hand and pressed a gentle kiss on her ivory skin.

Olive eyes looked at blue as he parted away from her soft hand, and he noticed how the pink tinge had turned into a full ruby blush that was being accentuated by the falling platinum locks of her messy updo. He let go of her hand, which she immediately brought close to her chest, as if she was sheltering it from the heated contact. She wasn't the only one affected by the gesture. How he wished he could spirit her away to a place where they could never be found, to a place he could show her how much she meant to him— Alphonse put a stop to his wild imagination. He had to reign in his emotions because it was not the time nor the place to let the urges run amok, instead he confidently sat down next to Winry and began looking around.

The young man's eyes posed on the stage and quickly noticed that his older brother was currently engaged in what looked like a heated argument with Roy Mustang. He looked to the other side of the stage and saw some military personnel that he had never seen before, talking with the City Major. Alphonse couldn't tell very well from that distance, but he assumed that the tall, gray-haired man standing next to Charles McKinney was some sort of high ranking military official.

"It's been a while…"

Winry finally spoke to him, and he smiled.

"Yeah…" He said as he met her eyes, thinking about the last time he had seen her or his brother for that matter. He had been so obsessed with his "evolution" that he had been a total dick to Edward and to Winry in the recent past.

"How are you and Brother been doing?"

It took Winry a few seconds to answer.

"We're good. We've been busy with… work… Ed making sure that there's law and order around Central, and I have so many clients that sometimes I have to bring work home."

Winry's answer was strained, and she was clearly uncomfortable with the small talk.

Alphonse knew that there was more to Winry's tension, and his estrangement to Edward was most like the cause of it. He had been thinking about his older brother since the courier handed him the invitation to the event. He though he had reached catharsis when he broke Edward's doppelgänger like a porcelain doll, but that hadn't been the case, and it troubled him. He chucked his internal conflict to the possibility that he still had some sort of sentimental attachments lingering from his old human self. However, there was one thing he was sure of, he knew that the invitation could serve as an excuse to reconnect with Edward and, once and for all, put those petty feelings to rest.

"Listen, Winry."

His olive eyes looked at her with warmth.

"I want to apologize to you for my actions as of late. I've been distant and it hasn't been fair to you nor to Brother, in fact, I came here today to talk to him… to apologize for my rude behavior." Alphonse confessed, going back to using singular pronouns, even though it felt oddly strange to him, but he didn't want to bring any unwanted attention to himself.

The tension in Winry's demeanor subsided and a warm, sincere smile appeared on her beautiful features.

"I'm glad…" She said, "…Ed hasn't taken your distancing very well."

"I know…" Alphonse muttered.

Alphonse looked back at Edward and saw that he was also looking his way. He was about to smile at his older brother, when he saw him scowl and shake his head. His expression became guarded, when Edward diverted his gaze, denoting shame.

oo-OOO-oo

Winry couldn't help but to feel worried when she glanced at Alphonse. Charles McKinney had finished his boring speech and had awarded the guests of honor, except Alphonse. His wide eyes and stiff shoulders told her that Alphonse wasn't taking being snubbed very well. She even sensed some hostility coming from the young man. It was a behavior so unlike him, another item on the list of strange things she had noticed since Alphonse walked in.

Winry became rather stunned with the physical appearance of the younger Elric as she saw him coming her way. The long bangs, the longer hair, the fact that he was dressed all in black —except for a burgundy necktie— Alphonse looked so eerily similar to Edward that it made her feel uneasy. She became mortified with herself when her cheeks became hot, but she was outright mad at herself when she became flustered, once the young man took her hand and planted a kiss on it. She was planning to ask him why he wasn't heading towards the stage where all the guests of honor where seated, but after Alphonse's unsolicited gesture, she became tongue tied. At least Alphonse noticed her discomfort and decided to leave her alone.

Winry took thatopportunity to stare at her brother-in-law. She really had been quite surprised to see how much Alphonse had changed in six months. The choice of clothes, the hair style… it was so unlike Alphonse to style himself in such way. She knew that people had different ways of coping with grief, so maybe Alphonse's new appearance had to do with that. When Alphonse momentarily turned his head away from her, she noticed the patch of dark hair running down his nape. She immediately thought that the dark lock looked so out of place, so foreign, and for some odd reason, she was taken aback by the overwhelming feeling that she was sitting next to a complete stranger.

"—and now I'll introduce General Peter Whitman…"

Winry refrained from her deep thoughts, and looked back at the podium, when she heard the City Major introduce the next person to take the podium.

The gray-haired man who had been sitting on the opposite side from where Edward was sitting, stood up and quickly walked to the podium. It was the first time she had seen that General, so she figured that he must have been recently transferred from another command.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I want to thank you all for attending to this fine celebration of our Heroes…"

The man paused and looked at the crowd before proceeding.

"…proud soldiers of the Amestrian Military, whose great dedication to protect lives, drove them to not think of themselves, but think about the nation itself."

The General took another pause.

"It had been a great tragedy to have lost our great leader to the Drachmans, and it cost our great nation dearly. Overnight, Amestris became blind without proper guidance… but Führer Grumman has proven to us that he can handle the task of shepherding our nation back to greatness, by appointing key people to posts where their skills can be used to the betterment of the country."

He turned to his right and saluted the guests of honor.

"These are our Heroes… who still work diligently for you." Whitman continued, once he turned back to the crowd, who in response, applauded when he finished with the statement.

"However… there is one hero among our Heroes whose diligence has vastly improved the quality of life in our fine city. I want to congratulate Lieutenant Colonel Edward Elric, the former Fullmetal Alchemist —the Alchemist of the People— for his exemplary efforts."

Whitman looked again at the honorees. A visibly upset Brigadier General Mustang was elbowing a flabbergasted blonde, urging him to stand up and walk towards the podium. Whitman waited until the young man was standing next to him to continue with his speech.

"The streets of Central hadn't been safer since this young man took the important task of righting wrongs… so it is with great pride that I announce, that Lieutenant Colonel Edward Elric, will soon be known as Colonel Edward Elric."

Whitman glanced to his right to see the shocked face of the young man. He put a hand to the microphone and directed his words to the Lieutenant Colonel.

"Snap out of it, son. The people will want to hear some words out of you."

Since Edward didn't answer, the General completely turned towards the blonde. He now could see how displeased the young man actually was. Edward glanced nervously over his shoulder to where the Brigadier General was seated. The rather stunned raven-haired man gestured to the blonde to go along and take the microphone.

Winry had been more than surprised by the General's unorthodox announcement(2), and for the looks of it, so was Alphonse. Before Edward called her to join him at the podium, she looked over her shoulder as she passed by Alphonse. Her insides becamecold when she saw the younger blonde's face. Alphonse's slightly cringed face denoted scorn, while his olive eyes burned with something akin to jealousy, she might even dare say… envy.

oo-OOO-oo

"Un-_fucking_-believable!" Alphonse hissed through clenched teeth as he made his way down the street.

How dare they humiliate him? He should have known that something was wrong the minute the usher pointed him to sit with the crowd, and not upstage, where his brother was siting. Dammit! How could they ignore the fact that he had been a key person in the salvation of the entire fucking country? To acknowledge that fucking Mustang, Hawkeye and Armstrong, even his fucking brother as being the only ones responsible for rescuing the people from oblivion…

"Fucking ridiculous!"

Lies upon lies… it made him sick. His already deep frown dipped in deeper. Alphonse turned his attention inwards, trying desperately to hear the homunculus entwined with him… to no avail. A lamenting groan escaped past his lips, remembering that he hadn't heard the annoying alchemical creation since his seventh Sacrifice. The blonde shook his head when he realized how much he missed Envy over his own brother… and a rueful smile appeared, unannounced.

He picked up the pace.

"Edward…" He mumbled as an afterthought when he reached an intersection.

Alphonse frowned again when images of his older brother scowling at him invaded his mind.

"He knew…"

Yes, Edward knew he was going to be snubbed, that's why he looked away with guilt —not shame— as he initially thought.

Edward knew… just like the time he feigned ignorance about the blackouts.

"…hypocrite…" He spat.

Pretending to not know about his promotion… Did he forget that it was because of him that he had that fucking job in the first place? He was the one that convinced him to get out of fucking Resembool and make a fucking name for himself. He was the one who gave him the lead for the fucking Quíjì case…

Alphonse chuckled bitterly.

"The streets of Central hadn't been safer…"

Alphonse repeated what that brown-noser General said in his speech.

"The fucking streets of Central are safer because _we_ covered Brother's ass." He repeated, this time mimicking General Whitman's bass voice.

It had been his superior mastery of alchemy and alkahestry that got Edward and his pathetic team out of trouble, when Bruno and his chimeras had the upper hand… but his older brother got all the credit for his efforts.

"He's _nothing_ without us!"

Alphonse stopped abruptly in the middle of the dark sidewalk. His fists started shaking with anger when an image of a grinning Edward crossed his mind. The blonde closed his eyes when he felt a sad pang in his heart. It was a feeling he hadn't felt in months… heartache and betrayal. Alphonse opened his eyes, his expression was distant. He would've been ok, not being recognized as a Hero of Amestris, since it was a trivial thing and an obvious military ploy. He would have been ok with Edward's advancement…

"If only he would have given us some credit for our joint efforts…" He muttered as he took a step forward.

But he didn't.

Edward completely ignored the fact that he was mounted on a high horse because of him. Why didn't he called his name when he called Winry to join him at the podium?

Alphonse had reached another intersection. His thoughts went to the beautiful blonde as he waited for the lights to change. He deduced that she also was in it, and he would've noticed it, if his fucking feelings for her hadn't clouded his mind. Now that he thought about it, it was so clear that Winry's hesitation was not because of his estrangement to Edward, but because she knew what was going to happen.

"Did she wanted to see us shunned in front of everyone?"

Probably. She had been more than relieved to go her husband's side when he called for her.

"Edward and Winry… the new role models for every citizen in Amestris… _what a fucking joke!_" Alphonse spat, scathing words filled with utter disdain for the couple, as his mind replayed one of the comments stated by one of the reporters, once Edward's pathetic speech was over.

"Ow!"

The loud cry of a woman took Alphonse away from his current train of thought. He slowed his walk and noticed that a little further down the street, there was a young woman leaning on a car with a hood opened. The car and the woman were obviously stuck right in the middle of the rather empty street. When he got closer, he noticed that the car was blowing steam from the motor and also from an outer pipe near the front of the car. He put all thoughts about Edward and Winry aside as he approached the damsel-in-distress.

"Can I help you?" He asked, using singular pronouns for a second time that day.

Alphonse's breath was caught when he finally laid eyes on the woman. She had blonde, curly long hair, ivory skin peeking at him from her long-sleeve blouse— The deep sapphire eyes… he had to restrain the urge to laugh at his fucking luck. The woman looked so much like Winry… just like that strawberry blonde had looked so much like Edward—

"You can, if you know anything about cars." The blonde woman said, yanking him away from his musings.

"Well, I know a little." He replied behind a charming smile.

"Can I take a look?"

The woman smiled at Alphonse's words.

"Sure, go ahead."

She pushed away from the car, and walked over to the front. Alphonse followed.

"Be careful! I just got burned by the steam."

Alphonse heeded her words and carefully looked inside the hood. He didn't notice anything out of place, but then again, he knew crap about cars. However he did see the small crack on the outer pipe of the car. A simple transmutation would help fix that problem…

"I think radiator overheated and cracked one of the pipes." She said wryly.

Alphonse blinked at her, thinking that she was probably correct in her assumptions.

"Well, we need water to replenish the tank." He replied.

"But what about the crack?" She asked.

Alphonse wasn't listening. His mind was wrapped up in the thought that the woman looked so appetizing in her tight blouse and even tighter jeans…

He couldn't help but to smile at her, when she waved a hand in front of him to get back his attention.

"Don't worry about either." He said, "My house is just around the block and I have something in my basement that might help seal the crack."

"I don't want to cause you any trouble." She replied, clearly hesitant to completely trust the words of a total stranger.

"You're not causing me any trouble miss…"

The woman blushed with embarrassment when she realized she hadn't introduced herself.

"I'm sorry. Where are my manners? The name's Winifred, but I go by Win."

"W-Win?" Alphonse stuttered in shock.

"Are you ok?" Win asked, tilting her head slightly to one side, obviously confused by Alphonse's odd behavior.

"Y-yeah… Someone very dear to me also goes by Win." He answered, bashfully.

Win found Alphonse's reaction quite adorable.

"Ok, Mister. I'll accept your offer." She said with a grin on her face.

"Besides it's too dark to stay here all by myself. Who knows what kind of bad things could happen at this hour of the night."

Win's words almost made him crack a laugh. If she only knew that her fate was already sealed…

"Yes, you're right." He reaffirmed with a tinge of mirth.

"You never know what kinds of lunatics are out there, waiting for the right moment to strike."

The double speak was lost to Win and Alphonse couldn't help the smirk that spread across his face.

At least his bad day was going to end on a happier note.

oo-OOO-oo

Alphonse whistled as he walked down the sidewalk, with two canisters filled with water on each hand. He looked around to make sure no one was watching him then slowly approached Win's car. It had been a good thing to have pushed the car next to the curb before walking with Win to his townhouse as it made his tinkering less noticeable. He set the canisters on the side walk and fished the car keys from the pocket of his black hoodie. He opened the door on the driver's side, and quickly pulled on the handle to open the hood. He looked inside and the radiator looked cool. He then looked for the crack on the pipe and with a simple transmutation he sealed the pipe close.

"We told you, Win, that we knew how to fix the car." He mockingly said out loud.

Alphonse grabbed the canisters and poured the water in the radiator. He set the canisters aside and got inside the car. He inserted the key on the starter and turned the ignition on. The car started with no problems which made him throw a laughing fit when he thought about the bad luck of the poor damsel-in-distress… if she only knew that she didn't need to follow him home at all. He could've simply cooled the radiator and patched the pipe with two simple transmutations…

He turned the car off, locked the door and grabbed the canisters. As he walked back to his domicile, Alphonse's eyes locked on the flower shop across the street and he noticed that the lights were still on. Smiling on his good fortune, he left the canisters on the sidewalk and crossed the street then entered into the shop.

A bell rang as the door opened and an old lady came up to the counter.

"Oh my! Alphonse. What are you doing here so late?" The old woman asked with curiosity.

"Well, I was walking home and saw that your shop was still open." He answered, cheerfully, using singular pronouns.

He looked around and quickly set eyes on the white roses sitting on a pail at the far end of the shop.

"Can I get a dozen of those white roses?" He asked as he pulled his wallet from the back pocket of his black jeans.

"Hot date?" The woman asked, amused.

"Something like that." Alphonse replied with a bashful smile.

The blonde paid for the flowers and quickly headed home, after making sure he also brought the canisters along with him.

oo-OOO-oo

Alphonse set the containers next to the door, and walked towards the basement door with the bouquet of white roses in hand.

Once he pushed on the door, he heard Win yelling for help, and he couldn't help the wicked grin that crept across his face. He slowly went down the stairs, quickly setting olive eyes on the figure that dangled from transmuted tendrils that arose from the concrete floor.

"We fixed the car for you!" He said with great amusement.

Win looked at him with frightened, tearful eyes.

"Please don't hurt me." She pleaded.

Alphonse smiled at her but didn't answer, instead, he approached her, and wiped away a solitary tear that was running down her cheek with the pad of his right thumb.

"So beautiful…" He muttered, entranced by the resemblance of the young woman to Winry.

He showed her the flower bouquet.

"White roses, your favorite, Win."

The young woman looked at him in quiet disbelief. The only sound that came out of her where her shallow sobs.

"Please let me go…" She pleaded again.

"Call me Al, Win."

Alphonse ran the same thumb over her now dry lips, making the woman flinch away from the contact.

"You know, today we had a bad day." He said as he walked away.

Alphonse placed the bouquet on the long table that he used for his alchemy lab, then returned to his Sacrifice's side.

"You see, Brother humiliated us today… _and it fucking hurt!_"

Win's eyes opened wide when Alphonse raised his voice.

"He thinks he's so high and mighty… _Mr. Law and Order._"

He mimicked the gallantry of a knight.

"Well let's see how high and mighty he is, once we make him fall from his high horse." Alphonse kept rambling out loud.

"We'll hit him where it_ hurts…_"

Win listened to Alphonse's lunatic rant in relative silence, mindlessly nodding her head with each spoken word, thinking that if she played along, the disturbed young man would let her go.

"I-I too know what it is to be wronged."

Her trembling words reached Alphonse, making him stop his rant and pay full attention to her.

Win noticed and continued.

"My sister… my older sister always had it against me. She even married the man I loved." She lied, trying to go for a sympathy plea.

"I was very hurt but I forgave her." She added with a tender yet nervous smile.

Alphonse's eyes flickered.

"It truly hurts…" He said in a dejected tone.

The woman's eyes filled with hope, thinking that he had reached the mentally unbalanced blonde.

"Yes, I know better than anyone… if you let me down we can talk more about it, we can—"

Alphonse struck her face hard, busting a lip in the process. He began laughing maniacally once he saw how dread replaced her hope.

"What a heartfelt story you just told me, Win." He said derisively.

"Now we'll tell you one of our own. Brother married the person we love. He took her away from us. One day we told her how we felt about her and _she shunned us_, because she only had eyes for _Brother._"

Alphonse wiped the blood from Win's busted lip and licked the red substance from his thumb.

"Like we were saying to you before you interrupted us with your _pathetic bullshit_, Brother humiliated us today. We were thinking that he needs us to teach him a lesson. We wondered, what _Mr. Law and Order_ will do if he finds a beautiful blonde woman's corpse publicly displayed for all to see?"

Alphonse snickered after he finished his speech.

Win began to weep and thrashed around the concrete restraints wrapped around her torso and arms, when Alphonse ran his hand down her chest.

"You know it's funny that you go by Win, since that's the nickname that Brother's wife goes by."

The faint growl of the chimeras was heard rumbling inside the basement.

"We're sorry, darlings, but plans have changed." Alphonse said as he began fondling the young woman between her jean-clad legs.

"No!" Win shrieked and tried clenching her legs together, making Alphonse laugh at her pointless human effort.

"You see…" Alphonse said, getting back to the previous subject, "Not only are your names similar, but you look exactly like _our_ Win…"

Alphonse slid a kunai from his belt and showed its shiny edge to his Sacrifice… then smiled.

* * *

References:

(1) The Central Park is the same park mentioned in Chapter 2 of the Insidious spin off What Happens In Central, Stays In Central.

(2) I confirmed with a trusted source, who is an active duty military member for one of the military branches in the USA armed forces that an announcement for promotion can be done outside of a military base. However the actual ceremony is always conducted inside military property.

Reviews are greatly appreciated and highly encouraged as it lets me know how the story is faring with all of you. **Thanks for reading!**


	5. Three

A/N: This chapter is partially unbeta'd. Please forgive any typos and grammatical errors that you may encounter along the way.

**A special thanks to ZilSepam** for the helpful advice she gave about the psychology of serial killers.

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**Chapter warning:** This chapter contains mindfuckery, strong descriptions of physical violence and graphical descriptions found in an autopsy report.

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**Three**

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Edward opened his eyes, and stared lazily at the ceiling, thinking he heard the telephone ring. Shortly after, a second ring reached the master bedroom, confirming that he in fact had heard the phone ring in the first place. Groaning, he took the covers off, and sat on the edge of the bed. Winry shifted slightly on the bed when he finally stood up.

He was in front of the telephone two rings later.

"Hello?" Edward croaked, when he put the receiver to the side of his face.

He hoped he have sounded irritated enough, since he was woken up at 5:19 in the morning when he didn't have to be up until 6:00 AM.

"Good morning, Lieutenant Colonel."

The unmistakably bass voice of Alex Louis Armstrong boomed through the other side of the line.

"Good morning, Major Armstrong…"

Edward rubbed his eyes with his free hand. He even yawned in silence while he waited for the brawny man to explain the reason for the sudden phone call.

"The front desk at the Division just received a phone call from one of the MPs stationed at Central Park…"

Edward perked up a little upon listening to the man's words.

"…a jogger found a body at 0507 in front of Führer Bradley's monument."

Armstrong's statement finished waking him up.

"Meet me over there." He replied, holding the receiver tighter as he spoke.

The blonde hung up and ran a hand along his long, loose hair as he absently stared at the black device.

Edward headed back to the bedroom and saw that Winry was sitting on the bed.

"What happened?" She asked with a worried look, and Edward sighed.

"Apparently someone found a body at Central Park…"

He trailed off, his mind warning him that the finding had to be rather serious, otherwise he wouldn't been called so early in the morning, specially by the Major himself—

"Ed? Did you hear me?" Winry asked, her eyebrows were tilting upwards.

"What were you saying, Win?" He said, this time paying full attention to his loving wife.

"I was saying, good luck." She replied, a warm smile now crossed her delicate features.

Edward nodded.

"I need to get dressed and get going…"

He left the room and headed towards the bathroom, hoping as he walked down the hallway, that the situation wasn't as bad as the Major sound it to be.

oo-OOO-oo

The drive to Central Park had been fast but not fast enough, as it left time for Edward to think about how lousy the week had been so far.

Three days before, Edward had survived the sham that had been the celebration of the Heroes of Amestris. He knew that the whole event was just a public relations stunt to get the military back on the good side of the people, but never in his life he thought they would use him to achieve such purpose. His brain had to tell his body to snap out of the stupor he had become enveloped, once he heard that manipulative bastard Whitman asking him to join him at the podium. He gave Mustang a nasty look, immediately thinking that he was Whitman's accomplice, but by the deepening scowl that the older man showed on his face, he realized that his superior didn't know of the General's plans at all.

His stomach had bottomed out, when he heard that he was going to shamelessly be promoted to Colonel. Edward made sure to let the gray-haired man know how angry he was to have been used as a pawn for furthering the military agenda, by glaring daggers at the General as he took the microphone. A thought crossed his mind as he anxiously looked at the expectant crowd. He never thought it was possible to meet another person more devious and more callous than Roy Mustang himself, but he had been proven wrong. The way General Whitman had manipulated the event, had been more than despicable, but that wasn't the worst of it. Seeing Alphonse grimace, made his insides turn. His younger brother looked hurt —and rightly so— because he had been invited to a seemingly important event only to be treated like a piece of garbage that gets kicked to the curb. He wanted to give his adored brother some more than deserved recognition, but couldn't, because as Mustang pointed out, Alphonse needed to be protected from assholes like the one standing beside him.

Edward still didn't know why —and he still puts blame on his lack of proper social skills— but like a moron, he called for his wife to join him at the podium, involuntarily shunning his brother even more in the process. He had immediately cursed inwardly —as he still is— for letting his mouth run. Winry had seen apprehension in his golden eyes when she joined him onstage, and held his hand tight, in an effort to ease his nerves, all to no avail.

When he started to turn around to leave the podium with Winry, a reporter asked him a question, which he felt obliged to answer. That question led to another, then to a dozen more. At the end, he and Winry were left rather drained from the impromptu press conference.

Edward had tried to find Alphonse between the blinding flashes of the reporter's cameras but soon realized that his younger brother was long gone. He did call Alphonse the day after to apologize, but his younger brother didn't even pick up the phone, and he was very concerned about it too, because he and Alphonse hadn't been on good terms for a while, and probably Whitman's stunt had put a bigger rift between them both.

"We've arrived, sir."

The words of the assigned driver from the military carpool, had pulled him back into the present.

oo-OOO-oo

It took Edward ten minutes to walk from the park's main parking lot to where Führer Bradley's monument was located. Edward saw the infamous yellow and black tape adorning the landscape as he got closer. Alex Louis Armstrong was already there, and walked his way once he spotted him.

"Hey, Major." Edward said, waving weakly at the taller blonde.

Edward was trying to act as casual as possible but his nerves were already getting at him. It was technically his first murder investigation since he had been appointed to Hughes's post a little more than a year ago.

"Lieutenant Colonel…" The brawny man, saluted accordingly, however Edward noticed the tension in Alex's greeting.

"Is that bad?" Edward replied, nervously.

Alex's lips hid behind his mustache before answering Edward's question.

"Better take a look for yourself."

His tone was flat and clipped.

Both men lifted the "crime scene do not cross" tape, and entered the closed-off area. Alex headed over to where Second Lieutenant Maria Ross was located while Edward headed to the actual crime scene.

Edward's eyes became impossibly wide once he laid eyes on the scene. A blonde woman, dressed in what looked like a sleeveless white tunic dress, laid on the middle of a very intricate transmutation circle. The circle itself looked like it had been etched into the concrete slabs, right in front of the late Führer's statue. The medical examiner was squatted in front the body so he couldn't see it in detail from where he was standing, but when the examiner moved away, Edward had to steady his faltering legs, as he laid eyes on the young woman's face.

The woman looked so much like Winry… he had to control the queasiness that was quickly taking hold of his insides. Edward swallowed a subsequent rush of saliva, very slowly, as to not make the queasiness any worse. He was sure that he would have thrown up if he would have had something to eat prior to arriving at the scene.

Once he felt sufficiently collected, he looked over where the examiner was currently situated.

"Have you determined the cause of death, Mike?" Edward asked, steadying his voice as he spoke, while constantly reminding himself that it was not the first time in his life that he had seen a corpse.

The medical examiner, a civilian who worked for the Division, was busy putting some swabs inside some plastic bags, but he looked up the minute Edward spoke to him. He took off his gloves before putting them in a medical waste bag then walked over to the distressed blonde's side.

"Well…" Mike glanced at the victim before meeting Edward's eyes, "I can't determine the cause of death until I perform a full autopsy, but I can tell you that our Jane Doe had been sexually assaulted. Her underwear is missing, plus I've found bodily fluids and blood inside her."

The blonde closed his eyes, feeling suddenly cold from the disturbing news, as he had been fearing that particular scenario since he first laid eyes on the victim.

He took a steadying breath.

"Ok… please call me when you have the report ready." Edward said flatly.

The medical examiner noticed Edward's apprehension and placed a comforting hand on the blonde's shoulder.

"Sure thing, Lieutenant Colonel."

Mike patted Edward's shoulder then went back to collect the bags. Edward looked at the victim with sad eyes. A shuddering breath escaped past his lips, as he mentally, emotionally and physically prepared himself to take a more detailed look of the crime scene.

oo-OOO-oo

Edward knelt next to the array. He was going to examine its layout, while trying to avoid looking the corpse as much as he could. He didn't want the queasiness to return now that he had finally managed to steady his insides.

Edward looked over his shoulder in order to find the Major's whereabouts.

"Major, can you please join me over here?" He asked once he spotted the man still talking with Maria Ross.

The taller blonde replied with a nod then walked over to where Edward was kneeling.

"Are you ok, lad?" The Major asked, as he and knelt next to Edward.

Alex was sincerely concerned about the blonde, since he knew that the young man was not used to being exposed to that type of heinous scenarios in the first place.

"I'm fine." Edward spat rather curtly.

Edward even frowned at the man, because he hadn't taken well, the good intention behind the caring words.

"I have never seen something like this…" Edward admitted, changing the subject.

His lips were pressed into a flat line as he kept staring at the circle, trying to figure out the reasoning behind the mysterious placement of the geometric shapes and runes that were etched in the cement.

Alex also observed the intricate design. It definitely wasn't an array he was familiar with, and it sure didn't look like any arrays he had seen in any advanced Alchemy books.

"I haven't seen anything like this neither… however I wonder if the activation of this array, is what caused Jane Doe's untimely death…"

Edward stared at the older man, silently agreeing with his conjecture.

"One thing is for sure, this transmutation circle is very complicated… our perp is definitely a very skilled alchemist." Edward muttered, worriedly.

His eyes instantly narrowed, wondering why someone would use their talents to commit such atrocity.

Edward looked at the victim, involuntarily flinching, once he laid eyes again on the corpse. It was obvious that the woman was purposely being displayed —which was never a good sign— and it was clear that the perpetrator wanted to show off.

"…bastard…" He hissed, while mentally condemning the man who took upon his hands the right to hurt and kill that poor woman.

Edward observed the woman's lower body first, because he didn't want to look at her face just yet.

The Jane Doe was wearing a white tunic and for the looks of it, it didn't have any seams, meaning that the tunic was fashioned with alchemy. He shook his head, wondering if the perp kept her clothes, along with her underwear, as trophies…

Putting those unsettling thoughts on hold, Edward now laid eyes on victim's mid section. Her arms folded over her torso, just like a person who was laid inside a casket. She was holding between her hands a white rose, which by the looks of it, had been dried, most likely with alchemy.

"Major, what do you know about dried white roses?"

The Major, who had been busy looking at the array, now laid eyes on the white rose.

"Flowers convey different meanings… at least that is what nana(1) used to say…" He answered, observing the flower in detail.

"…death preferable to the loss of innocence(2). That's what a dried white rose means."

Alex looked away in disgust.

"Fuck…" Edward cursed, knowing very well that they had a difficult case in their hands.

oo-OOO-oo

Edward had been standing in front of the large blackboard for what seemed like hours. With arms crossed in front of his chest, he kept staring at the recently developed images taken from the crime scene just a couple of hours ago. After all, it was his job to establish the killer's modus operandi, while the Major worked on identifying the victim.

Jane Doe's photograph was taped on the center of the board, while on the far left, he had taped the image of the unidentified transmutation circle and the image of the dried white rose.

Edward kept staring at the woman in the photograph. He still couldn't shake away the eerie feeling he felt when looking at the woman's face. From the coloring to the physique, and right to the blue eyes, Edward could tell that if the woman was still alive, she would've closely resembled Winry, heck, she could have easily passed as her sister. Wild thoughts crossed his mind, thinking how his wife could have easily met that woman's fate. He shook his head once, and closed his eyes shut, rubbing his thumb and fingers into his eyes as he mentally cursed at himself for even thinking about such horrific possibility.

Suddenly he heard a gentle knock on the door.

"Come in." Edward said, dryly.

Scieska slowly opened the door, and Edward noticed that she held a cup of coffee in her hand. The shy woman walked inside and set eyes on his desk. Still sitting on the desk surface, was the untouched oatmeal that she had bought for him hours earlier.

"Lieutenant Colonel, you need to eat." She reminded him.

Edward initially glared at her, for the unwarranted comment, but his features softened once he saw motherly concern written all over her face.

"I'll eat it later, Scieska… thanks."

The bespectacled woman handed him the coffee then fished out two white pills from one of the pockets in her uniform.

"At least take these, they did wonders for the late Brigadier General." She said with a sad tone and a small smile.

Edward gave her a wry smile of his own and took both the coffee and the pills. He put the pills in his mouth and quickly chased them down his throat with the coffee.

"Thank you."

Scieska's smile spread a bit wider. She turned around and left his office, gently closing the door behind her.

Edward smiled again at her kind gesture. He was indeed thankful to Scieska as he in fact had a bad headache ever since he left the crime scene, a headache that only got worse once he spoke with the medical examiner about Jane Doe's autopsy report.

_According to investigation of the crime scene, the victim was found dead, clothed but without undergarments, which made the investigators suspect a sexual assault related death. External examination of the deceased's body didn't reveal the course of death, however, special examination of the female genitalia, revealed multiple shallow lacerations, at different stages of healing, in the vaginal wall, and an abrasion wound around the cervical os. Postmortem vaginal swabs collected from the posterior fornix of the victim's vagina were done to investigate for a recent sexual assault episode prior to death. The presence of spermatozoa was confirmed by microscopic visualization method. Examination of the internal organs failed to establish a definite cause of death(3)._

Replaying the results of the autopsy report in his mind, made Edward's stomach become unsettled once again, specially since Mike had failed to establish a definite cause of death.

_"Ed, it's clear that she suffered from prolonged torture— I say at least two days. The healing lacerations in the vaginal walls proves this much. Off the record, I think that maybe the stress from being tortured provoked an arrhythmia that lead to sudden cardiac death…"_

Edward took another swig of his coffee. This time the black liquid didn't go down as smoothly as the first time.

"Two days of hell…"

His face immediately scrunched up in disgust, as he stared again at the woman's muted blue eyes. To have died from sexual torture… to think of the kind of unspeakable things the perp did to that poor woman—

"But how in the world did the fucking bastard do it without also leaving external marks?"

Armstrong's theory about the array being the actual cause of death suddenly came to mind. He took a second look at the array and instantly hardened his expression.

Edward couldn't shake away the creepy feeling that he was looking at a human transmutation circle.

oo-OOO-oo

Alphonse just barely made it to his 2 o'clock appointment. He had been so enraptured with his latest Sacrifice that he almost had forgotten that very important appointment with the neurologist. He yawned loud and wide as he waited for the doctor to come into the examination room. He was sleep deprived, since he had been up all night, finishing the last details of his plan and collecting Win's soul. Her slow suffering had produced the most exquisite results by far, and he wondered if it had to do with the strong motive behind the killing. During the course of the three days that he kept Win captive, he developed the perfect plan to teach a lesson to the very person he used to love most, since Edward's little stunt at the celebration had put the final nail in the coffin of their already frail brotherhood.

Just before 4:00 AM. He had etched the hybrid array on the concrete slabs, right in front of the most public spot in Central, the monument dedicated to that bastard Wrath. He made sure to etch the array quickly as he didn't want to alert the security at the park too quickly. He had decided to display Win like the Sacrifice that she was, dressing her in white while holding a white rose. He had used one of the roses from the dozen he bought the night he stumbled upon Win. He decided to dry the rose with alchemy to send a hidden message through the white rose, after all, he had become well versed in floriology(4) during the experiments he did on flowers, when his pathetic human self was still trying to find a way to save himself from the brain tumor that was slowly eating him from the inside out.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Elric."

The doctor said as he hastily entered the examination room, making Alphonse put a hold on his current musings.

"Good afternoon doctor." He replied, using his usual chirpy tone.

The doctor smiled at him as he quickly browsed through his medical folder. He paused and picked up the large manila folder that had the new set of X-rays. He took the plaques out, and held them against the fluorescent lights. Alphonse noticed that the doctor's face looked perplexed.

"Well…" The man said, "…it looks like the mass is still there but…"

He looked at the last recorded measurements in Alphonse's medical chart.

"Well… it hasn't grown." He trailed off.

Alphonse was stunned. He was so sure that the man would find no mass at all… he hadn't have any headaches nor blackouts since he first absorbed Nikki's soul over a year ago…

"Is that a good thing, doctor?" Alphonse asked with extreme concern.

The doctor look at him sternly.

"How have you been feeling, son?"

"There's no headaches, no blackouts…"

The doctor absorbed the information and reacted normally to it.

"Maybe the medicine I prescribed to you has helped in containing the growth— Consider yourself very lucky, son, because many people die from the pressure of the tumor as it grows."

The doctor scratched his scarce gray hair.

"I will prescribe you with more medicine. Let's see you in six months."

With that last statement, the doctor stood up, handed Alphonse the paper with the new prescription, then left the examination room as fast as when he first came in.

Alphonse stared blankly to the far wall.

"The mass hasn't disappeared…" He muttered.

At least the growth had stopped, meaning that the absorbed souls have helped some. He wondered how many more souls he will need to acquire in order to destroy the mass once an for all.

oo-OOO-oo

Edward heard a loud rasp on the door before Alex entered.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Lieutenant Colonel, but there's been a new development on the Jane Doe case."

Edward, who was still standing in front of the blackboard quickly took a seat at his desk and pointed the Major to sit down as well.

"What do we have?" The younger man asked serenely but tiredly.

"Well, the victim's car was found parked near Central Park's North gate."

Edward cut the Major off.

"That's very close to where Bradley's monument is… I assume that she also has been ID'd?"

"Yes. We found all of her clothes and her wallet inside the car. Her name is Winifred Meyer, age 27."

Edward immediately scowled upon hearing the name—

"The perp left everything behind?" He said, mostly to himself, completely surprised by the news.

"Yes, sir… all her clothes —including her intimates— were left in the car, he even left the wallet intact… it looks like the perp just wanted her."

The younger blonde absently covered his mouth and chin with a hand upon hearing the statement, and eventually tapped the index finger on the lips, as he ran multiple scenarios in his mind.

"Could it have been foul play?" Edward muttered after a long pause.

"I had the Second Lieutenant check her driver's license number, and no faults were found on record… not even a parking ticket was found under her name."

Edward cursed inwardly.

"Have her immediate family been contacted?"

"Yes. Apparently a missing person report was issued at the northern station last night by her parents and fiancée." Alex commented, somberly.

Edward felt his stomach recoil, thinking that now there were three more people whose lives would forever be changed…

"When can we expect the family to come here?" He asked, trying to figure out if he had enough time to mentally prepare himself for delivering the bad news to the victim's family.

oo-OOO-oo

Alphonse couldn't stop thinking about what the doctor had said about his condition. He confirmed that he still was relatively safe from the dangerous mass lodged deep inside his brain, but he was still not happy about it. At least the follow-up hadn't been a complete waste of his precious time as he now knew that the energy of a soul did put a stop to the mass' growth.

"So we need more Sacrifices…" He muttered, as he walked outside the subway station.

Gathering souls didn't pose a problem since he could easily grab any man or woman for such purpose, but he wanted to keep hunting according to his new plan, and that meant searching for a specific type of victim, if he wanted to exact his revenge accordingly.

The new plan also posed a huge problem, the disposal of bodies. It was so easy to get rid of the evidence when all he had to do was to give the bodies to the chimeras for them to eat, but now that was out of the question. If he wanted to make Edward's job a living hell, he needed to keep the bodies, and find good places to put them on display. He knew he had to be mobile, since he couldn't just drag a body down the street without being spotted. It was too bad that he couldn't keep Win's car as its size was ideal for transporting bodies to wherever he wanted…

A wicked smile crossed his face when another thought came to mind.

Alphonse crossed the intersection and entered the convenience store located across the subway station.

"Do you still have newspapers available?" He asked the man at the counter as soon as he walked in.

The man lazily pointed to a rack next to the door.

The blonde smiled sheepishly since he didn't notice the newspaper rack when he entered inside the store. Thankfully there still was one newspaper left on the rack, and he quickly picked it up. He opened the paper to the classifieds and scanned through all the small type until he found the car section. He smiled with satisfaction when he noticed that there were plenty of ads for used cars. He folded the newspaper back in half and headed to the counter to pay for it.

oo-OOO-oo

Alphonse was whistling yet another happy tune while he headed home. He assumed that probably by know, the people at the a Intelligence Division, were pulling at their hairs trying to figure out Win's cause of death. He burst into a fit of laughter. They could look all they want but wouldn't find what killed the poor woman. He had made sure to erase all ligature marks and any damage from all the blows he inflicted to her body. He purposely left the evidence of sexual assault as he knew very well that this would severely affect his older brother more than anything else he could have done to the Sacrifice.

As he went down the street, he approached a barbershop where some old men where sitting outside, right in front of the shop. As he got near, he could determine that the men were having a rather heated discussion by how they were steadily raising their voices. He greeted the men as he walked past them, but he completely stopped on his tracks the moment he heard one of the men saying that a person was found murdered at Central Park.

A boastful smile glistened between his lips. He didn't expect to hear any news about the murder so soon.

The fact that people were already talking about the murder meant that he had chosen the perfect locale, and he would be a damn fool if he didn't take such golden opportunity to further spread the word about his work, specially since he knew Edward will quickly take measures to keep the case from reaching the media.

The blonde turned around and approached the group of gossipy old men.

"I heard about the murder too." Alphonse said, quickly capturing the men's attention.

The man who brought up the topic in the first place, cackled.

"Heh! I told you I wasn't making things up!"

Alphonse carefully observed the men's expressions and body language, and adjusted his own accordingly.

"No sir, you're not making things up."

He backed the man's words with a reassuring smile.

"I've heard that a woman had been savagely raped and killed, and her body was left laying on top of a weird circle… desecrating our late Führer's monument." Alphonse said, carefully setting the bait by using strong descriptions laced with fake concern.

The oldest of the men took the bait.

"Raped?" He commented with a slight frown.

"Yes. I've heard that the monster who committed the murder is a real sadist." The blonde added in a casual tone, and waited for the men's reactions.

Alphonse found it absolutely exquisite to watch the different types of reactions the old men had, once he told a fact about the crime he committed.

He had to fake a cough though, otherwise he would have exploded into a another fit of laughter.

"—and how do you know about this, young man?" The most vocal of the men asked with skepticism.

—and the old fart had to go and ruin his fun.

"I have a relative who's working on the case as we speak." Alphonse replied, truthfully.

"Bullshit!" The same old man spat back at Alphonse.

The blonde mentally patted himself on the back. Nothing like saying an honest truth to successfully instigate horror into the minds of fickle humans.

"Now don't be so rude, Carl!" The man who started the conversation pitched in Alphonse's favor.

The blonde used the moment of chaos to add more fuel into the fire.

"I know for a fact that the military is fearing that they have a serial killer on their hands."

And with that comment, Alphonse left the old men behind.

The blonde laughed the rest of the way home, thinking that his plan was coming along far better than he expected.

As he inserted the key to the door, Alphonse was already contemplating what night spots he was going use as his hunting grounds… but first, a well deserved rest was in order.

oo-OOO-oo

Edward heard two knocks on the door before Maria Ross peeked inside his office.

"Miss Meyer's family is here." She said neutrally once she spotted the blonde standing near the window.

Edward glanced at her before a frown settled on his face.

"Thank you, Second Lieutenant. Tell them I'm coming over to meet with them."

Maria nodded and closed the door.

"Shit…" Edward grumbled.

He swallowed thickly and frowned deeper.

Edward knew that taking over Maes Hughes's job meant, that at some point or another, he was going to face a rather difficult situation. He snorted, bitterly reminding himself that he had been more than lucky to have been sheltered from heinous crimes for as long as he had. He scowled at the distraught man reflected on the window pane, and tried to clear the upset off his face.

Edward turned around and left his office.

oo-OOO-oo

"Good evening, Mr. Meyer, Mrs. Meyer…" Edward greeted the couple, while donning a small forced smile, as he extended a hand to each of them, respectively.

Edward now extended his hand to the young man standing beside Mrs. Meyer.

"Good evening, Lieutenant Colonel. I'm Richard Thompson, Win's fiancée."

Edward's eyes became impossibly wide and he absently released the grasp on the young man's hand.

Win? The victim went by Win? Edward had to push down the bile that quickly came rushing up his esophagus. He hawked as the acid burned the back of his throat and everything in between.

"Are you ok?" The young man asked.

"I… apologize for my rudeness…"

He mentally chastised himself for his rookie reaction.

"Let's talk somewhere more private." The blonde said, taking the focus off from him and putting it back to the task at hand.

He turned around and escorted Win's family to his office.

Edward pointed the family members to sit down then he sat behind his desk.

"We heard that you found our daughter." Mr. Meyer said, going straight to the point, while sporting a distressed look on his face.

Edward kept his expression neutral, careful to keep his own distress off his face.

"Yes…" He answered, once he managed to steady his voice.

"Is… is she alright?" The mother asked.

Her eyes were so full of hope that Edward had to swallow tensely, and unfortunately, the long pause made the victim's family justifiably uneasy.

"Did something bad happened to Win?"

The fiancée chipped in, making Edward cringe inwardly at the mention of the victim's name.

The blonde inhaled, and his frown turned to a look of guilt.

"There's no easy way to say this…" Edward said once he levelled his gaze to theirs.

"Winifred's body was found at Central Park around 5:07 in the morning—"

The ear-piercing wail that followed shut Edward up.

He looked with mild horror, at how the once hopeful faces of the victim's family, suddenly ashen, as they slowly morphed into pain and despair. It was a disturbing sight that was going to forever haunt his mind. He lowered his arms and placed them on top of his thighs so the family couldn't see how his now clenched fists trembled vigorously behind the desk. He also stared down at the desktop once he head the mother chant heart-wrenching words of grief.

"Win and I were going to marry by the end of summer…"

Edward peeled his guilt-striken eyes from the wooden surface when the sound of the fiancée's voice reached his ears. His chest started to hurt when he met the eyes of the grieving young man.

"What happened?" The father, who was the most composed of the three, asked with a dejected yet calm voice.

Edward now gazed into the older man's strained eyes. He steeled his nerves, readying himself to give the details on the gruesome finding.

oo-OOO-oo

Edward stared absently at the moving scenery as the military car sped down the street, taking him back home.

Explaining to the Meyer's that their daughter had been raped, and that her lifeless body had been left exposed in a very public area, had taken a heavy toll on his psyche, leaving him absolutely drained and completely distraught.

"We've arrived, sir."

Edward hadn't mean to give the man a rather nasty look, but he had caught him far off in deep thought. However, the blonde didn't apologize for his rude behavior and exited the car as fast as he could, closing the door a little harder than what he intended.

A sickening thought crossed his mind as he went up the stairs and neared his apartment.

"I'm coming home to_ my_ Win…" He muttered, feelings of disgust and relief pulled at his insides.

He couldn't shake away the disgust he felt, because he knew of a young man who will never get a chance to experience what he has been happily experiencing since he married Winry… yet he couldn't help but to feel shamelessly relieved, because he was coming home to his wife, who was _alive and well… and safe._

Edward inserted the key into the keyhole and opened the door after turning the key. The hearty smell of beef stew, and the sweet smell of baked apples, quickly invaded his nose, upsetting his empty stomach.

"Oh, you're here!" Winry said as she walked to the front door.

Edward had to control the urge to cry once he laid eyes upon her sweet and smiling face. He immediately shortened the distance between them so she couldn't see the glistening in his eyes, and hugged her tightly, feeling more than blessed that he was holding her warm, beating body.

"E-Ed? Are you ok?" Winry asked once she peeled herself from Edward's arms.

The blonde looked at her lovingly as he pushed his fears away. He pressed her again against his shoulder and whispered an "I love you". He clenched his eyes shut, eyelashes now damp and clumped from the tears caught in them.

He felt a pang of guilt as he recalled the laments and curses coming from each of Winifred's loved ones.

Edward swore to himself, as he desperately clung to Winry's warm embrace, that he was going to do everything in his power to capture the _monster_ who had destroyed the lives —of not one, but four people— so that no more people had to go through the hell that the Meyer's were currently experiencing.

* * *

References:

(1) She's the old woman who sold Roy Mustang flower's and information on episode 37 of FMAB. I'm just assuming that she could have also been a nanny for the Armstrong's.

(2) In floriology, a dried white rose means "Death preferable to the loss of innocence" and/or "Death is Preferable to Loss of Virtue".

(3) Information rephrased from an actual forensic report performed on a rape victim.

(4) Means of cryptological communication through the use or arrangement of flowers.

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A/N: This chapter was particularly hard for me, because trying to get Ed's reaction just right, was depressing. If you think about it, he has no clue of who the killer is… sigh. Many of you might be wondering if the story can get any worse, and the answer is yes. However you are not going to see an update to this story until we cross into the new year. I'm emotionally and mentally drained from this chapter, besides I don't write disturbing stories during the Holidays.

I will get back to writing more chapters for Convergence. For those who don't know, Convergence is a story set after the events of Conqueror of Shamballa. It's full of angst (of the non-disturbing type) and it will also contain romance, after all, Winry ended up in Earth with a very remorseful Edward. You can find the story in my profile.

Reviews are greatly appreciated and highly encouraged as it lets me know how the story is faring with all of you. **Thanks for reading!**


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